It's been one year, eight months and five days since viewers heard Edie Falco utter the last line of "The Sopranos" season 5.

To get you prepared for next Sunday's sixth season premiere, we'll spend all week studying the past and future of "The Sopranos," including the inner workings of whacking, the dreams that plague Tony (and some fans), the show's music, the cast and crew's feelings about getting close to the finish line, an episode guide to the first five seasons and, of course, a review of season 6's first four episodes.

And from today until Friday, don't forget about our Ultimate Sopranos Quiz, where you could win all five seasons on DVD and a script autographed by the cast. (Starting tomorrow, the quiz will appear on the cover of the Today section.)

First up, "Sopranos" creator David Chase and producer Terence Winter look back on some leftover questions from season 5.

Why did Tony B. have to die?

At first, Chase didn't think he did. Steve Buscemi signed a two-year contract to play Tony's recently paroled cousin Tony Blundetto. The original plan for the end of the season had Tony being faced with two loved ones who had betrayed him: Tony B., who went off the reservation and murdered the brother of New York captain Phil Leotardo; and Adriana, who had been cooperating with the FBI for a year and a half.

In the end, Tony B. would live and Adriana would die, but as Chase and company were trying to justify the decision from Tony's point of view, they discovered they had written themselves into a corner.

"We realized that what Tony B. had done, killing Phil's brother, there was no way he could survive," Chase says. "We really tried. There was a huge debate in (the writer's room) about what would happen."

There was even brief thought about having Tony B. go on the lam. "But if we did that," says Winter, "someone else close to Tony was going to have to pay for what Tony B. did."

And, speaking of Adriana . . .

Is Adriana really dead?

The way Winter wrote and Tim Van Patten directed Adriana's death scene, she crawls off-screen and Silvio shoots in her direction.

That decision to whack such a popular character off-camera has led to all kinds of conspiracy theories from optimistic fans who'd like to believe that, because we saw no body, there's still a chance Ade could come back. (Silvio bundled her away and gave her a plane ticket to Bimini! Adriana was wearing a Kevlar vest underneath her skintight top! Silvio has such bad eyesight that he thought he killed her and walked away without making sure!)

"She's dead," says Chase. "Dead. D-E-A-D, dead."

(For more on the science of whacking, read Tuesday's paper.)

Why did Tony go back to Carmela?

"The reality is for a guy like Tony, all of his stuff is there, it's comfortable and she makes ziti the way he likes it," says Winter. "If they can come to a comfortable place in their relationship where he's careful about the way he behaves, they have a life together and they have kids, and it's just easier."

Okay, so why did she take him back?

"It was too hard to change," says Chase. "I don't mean to change husbands. I just think it was too hard to change, to contemplate a different kind of life."

Vito is gay? Where did that come from?

Believe it or not, the idea came from actor Joseph Gannascoli, who plays closeted capo Vito Spatafore.

"Joey called up a couple of years ago," says Winter, "and said, "I read a book about a gay mobster. If you guys are interested in this, this is something I'd be willing to do.'"

While planning season 5, the writers dusted off Gannascoli's suggestion and, after making sure he was still okay with it, wrote a script where Vito was spotted performing a certain sexual act on a construction site security guard.

"And when he got the script," says Winter, "he called up and said, "I said I'd be gay, I didn't think I'd be the guy giving (it).' I said, "It doesn't work that way, Joe.'"

In the episode "In Camelot," drug and gambling addict screenwriter J.T. tried to pawn an Emmy award to help pay a debt to Christopher, only to be offered a measly 15 bucks for the statuette.

At the time, it looked like a shot at TV Academy voters who for four seasons straight had denied the show the Emmy for best drama. Since Chase and company finally took home the big prize for season 5, does he wish the pawnbroker had offered J.T. more money?

"I can't tell a guy how to run his business," Chase cracks.

Winter, who wrote that episode, insists he wasn't attacking the Academy with that gag.

"I had this incredibly elaborate, horrible-looking chess set that I got in Mexico, and I was trying to unload it quickly, and the guy offered me two dollars for it," he says. "That really was the basis for that scene."

Are Little Carmine and Rusty supposed to be Bush and Cheney?

Two of season 5's key supporting characters were malapropism-spouting, big buckle-wearing, son of a former boss Little Carmine Lupertazzi and his chief advisor, Rusty Millio, a gung-ho friend of Little Carmine's father who once had a quadruple bypass.

In one scene, Rusty suggested an attack against hated rival Johnny Sack, saying, "We go all out, we'll steamroll right over John. And I predict the guys in the street in Brooklyn and Queens, they'll welcome us as (bleeping) heroes."

In another, Little Carmine gave this pep talk to his troops: "The fundamental question is, will I be as effective as a boss like my dad was? And I will be, even more so, but until I am, it's going to be hard to verify that I think I'll be more effective."

More than a few viewers and critics noted the resemblance between the two of them and our current president and vice president.

"Well, they have their similarities," says Chase, grinning. "I wouldn't say they're Bush and Cheney. I think they're an effective mob family, which separates them from Bush and Cheney. They're doing well, their receipts are up, there are a lot of sports bettors. But I wouldn't say they're Bush and Cheney."

But if they were, who would Johnny Sack be?

"He would be. . . Chirac. I don't know."

Okay, David, these aren't from season 5, but since people always ask, are we ever going to see Furio again?